Mondays, 10:00 a.m.

Presenters from the National Institute of Transition Planning, the federal leader in retirement planning seminars, take your calls and emails every Monday. Each week, the show focuses on a specific area of retirement planning from financial security, taxes, federal benefits and estate planning, to life after retirement and the latest rumors. Email your questions or call the show live at 202-465-3080.

Co-host Flanagan wrote the cover story for the November issue of the National Association
of Retired Federal Employees magazine entitled "Choosing the Best Retirement
Date."

Below are some of the questions Santana and Flanagan answered during the show.

What is the difference between the Medicare open enrollment, federal health
benefit open season and the general enrollment for Medicare?

Santana: "One of the options people have in Medicare is to
choose to have
their Medicare benefits carried by a private health insurance plan. It's very
similar to the [Federal Employees Health Benefits program]. They have HMOs, PPOs
and all these options that we have in the FEHB. Individuals with Medicare have the
option to have their health insurance through a private plans. Every year, the
open enrollment period, which is Oct. 15 through Dec. 7, this is the opportunity
individuals have to come and compare those plans that they had in the past year
with how the plans are changing for next year.

"Also in Medicare, we have what we call a general enrollment period. This is for
individuals who missed their initial enrollment period when they were around 65-
years of age and over and did not enroll in Medicare at that time. They have from
Jan. 1 through March 31 to go and enroll in Medicare. If they do it during that
time, their effective day will be July 1 of the following year."

Why wouldn't someone enroll when they were 65?

Flanagan: "A couple of reasons why, number one is they might
still be working and they have health insurance through their employer, so they
wouldn't necessarily be enrolled in Medicare along with it, especially when it
comes to
federal employees because they're not required to enroll in Medicare. The other
reason is that under the Federal Health Benefit Program, you can have FEHB even
when you're retired and you can choose not to enroll in Medicare. So, sometimes
people decide after the fact, after they've retired, after they've turned 65 that
maybe at 70 they want to enroll in Medicare and that's when they'd use the general
enrollment period to sign up for Part B and Part A."

Santana: "This is the part that we pay taxes to get, Medicare Part A;
therefore, it's offered premium-free. This is the part that covered you when you
go into the hospital and become an in-patient. … It's free for most people. We
advise individuals, whether you're working or retired, when you turn 65, you
should get Medicare Part A. If you're actively working, of course, your FEHB will
be primary during that time. But, if there is something left over if you happen to
be in the hospital, that claim could be sent to Medicare Part A and it could help
you with some of the costs that are left over. ...

"The part in question is Medicare Part B. This is the part that you didn't pay
anything to earn it. Everybody has to pay a premium. … Usually, you wouldn't get
Medicare Part B while you're working because your FEHB remains your primary health
insurance. You would get very little out of paying that Medicare Part B premium."

Flanagan: "Working and being covered by your employer's health plan is when
Medicare is secondary to your federal health insurance. When you do retire, if you
work past age 65 and you still have FEHB coverage, there's a special enrollment
period."

Santana: "You can enroll in Medicare Part B at any point while you're
working. So you had that ongoing special enrollment period that you pick that up
at
any time when you're working [past age 65]. Now, once you retired and that
employer health insurance plan through employment ends, we give you eight months
to
think about whether Medicare Part B is a good option for you. … If you go on
without enrolling in Medicare Part B on that eighth month, that's when the general
enrollment period kicks in.

"The time frame that you have health insurance though your employer will not count
against you and that leads me to talk about a little penalty or a big penalty that
we have under Medicare Part B. The penalty is 10 percent for each 12 months that
went by that you could have had Medicare Part B and you decided not to enroll. So,
the penalty could grow over the years."